JUNE 2019

GRADUATION OR COMMENCEMENT

Last week, Diane and I attended our grandson’s high school graduation.  It brought back memories, not only of our children’s graduations, but our own so many years ago.  Graduations are important events in our lives.  They are markers in time, signifying the end of beginnings and the start of new beginnings.  That is why universities call them “Commencements.” For many years medieval universities required their new graduates to then spend a period of time teaching new students.  Commencement, thus, did not mean that a person was released from the university but that he or she ceased to be a pupil and commenced to be a teacher.  If we think about life that way, there is something to be learned.  All of life is a succession of triumphs and failures.  After each, rather than moving on, we ought to be using our experience to help others.  The Apostle Paul, in 2 Cor 1:3,4, put it this way:  God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.  Graduation from one set of circumstances, good or bad, is meant to be an inauguration of a career in encouraging others.  Graduation comes when we hear the Lord say to us, Well done good and faithful servant. Until our graduation from this life, our career should be one of saying to others, You can do it, you will make it, I believe in you and so does God!       Pastor Mike